Walk-behind lawnmowers are appropriate for cutting grass in household yards or other narrow areas, and have an operating handle extending to the rear from a housing in which a blade is housed. An example of this type of walk-behind lawnmower is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. S64-37217 A.
The walk-behind lawnmower disclosed in JP S64-37217 A has a housing in which the blade is rotatably housed, an operating handle that extends to the rear from the housing, and a rear shield that extends downward from the rear end part of the housing. During mowing operations using the walk-behind lawnmower, various types of debris, e.g., small rocks launched by the blade or the grass cut by the blade, may be projected at the operator from the walk-behind lawnmower. The rear shield is used to prevent such debris from being projected toward the operator.
The rear shield is composed of a single rubber sheet that has a uniform thickness across the entirety of the shield. The lower end part of the rear shield hangs down so as to brush against the ground. When changing the direction of the walk-behind lawnmower, the operator pushes and pulls the operating handle and thereby changes the direction of the walk-behind lawnmower. A force for flipping the rear shield from front to back is applied each time a switch is made between moving forward and moving in reverse. Each time this force is applied the rear shield bends in the front and back direction. Care must therefore be taken so that the rear shield is not caught on axles or other structural components when such bending occurs. The height of the housing above the ground can generally be adjusted in order to adjust the mowing height of the blade. Bending of the rear shield is particularly severe when the height of the housing above the ground is adjusted to a minimum.
In response, increasing the bending rigidity of the rear shield should minimize the bending of the rear shield. However, in such cases the flexibility of the rear shield decreases, and resistance to movement increases when changing the direction of the walk-behind lawnmower, so such an approach is inadvisable. A rear shield having increased bending rigidity is also disadvantageous from the perspective of increasing durability to wear and breakage. Providing a separate minimizing member for minimizing bending of the rear shield involves increasing the number of components, so such an approach is also inadvisable.